Wide-area monitoring and detection of atmospheric contaminants currently relies on distributed networks of range-limited, mechanical devices, from which cumulative specimens are collected and subjected to often laborious and expensive laboratory analysis for detection and identification of specific contaminants.
Honey bees have been used for more than 30 years to monitor for the presence of harmful chemicals, using sampling at the hive for the presence of chemicals of concern. This approach takes advantage of the widespread foraging of bees. Each colony covers an area as far as 3 miles from the hive, taking environmental samples while foraging for nectar and pollen, and returning to the hive each day where chemical sampling can occur. However, this approach requires additional, often costly, and time consuming chemical analysis.
Honey bees produce unique acoustic sounds when exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of various airborne toxicants. In addition, queenless colonies produce sounds different from those with a queen, and parasite infested colonies often produce sounds referred to as roaring. The unassisted human ear can often discern a change in the sounds produced by a bee colony, when it is subjected to stressors. However, the ability to identify stressed colonies by sound usually requires years of experience, and at best, the beekeeper only knows that something is wrong, not what is causing the altered sound production.
Currently there are no programs or devices that use the acoustic signals produced by honey bees to identify unique contaminants. All existing technologies rely on chemical traps or adsorbents to accumulate airborne compounds. These samples are then subjected to standard chromatographic or spectroscopic techniques and devices for identification. A number of new mechanical analytic devices are being developed. Additionally, a number of animal-based bio-indicator systems have been described. To date, none of the animal-based systems have been used to detect and identify suites of compounds.
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